Ejectors (also known as jet pumps, inductors, eductors, thermocompressors, and injectors) are widely used in a variety of engineering applications, such as desalination, refrigeration, and suction and evacuation of gases and fluids. Mixing enhancements of high and low speed streams is utilized as a means to improve efficiency of supersonic combustors, ejectors, nozzles, and the like. It is a well-known fact that the major mechanism for mixing these fluids and the like is turbulent mixing. It has been shown that the higher the turbulent intensity, the better the mixing process and the more secondary flow is entrained into the ejector. One method of improving turbulent mixing is by causing the flow coming out of the nozzle, for example, to swirl. Swirling the fluid flow creates streamline vortices that enhance turbulent mixing significantly.
One common method has been to place prism-shaped wedges into the stream of a nozzle to cause the fluid flowing therethrough to flow as a vortex, such as in a streamwise vorticity. Generally, these wedges extend inwardly in the fluid flow at the end of the nozzle. For example, it is well known in the art to place the wedges at the end of a nozzle by various methods, such as welding, wire EDM, or nozzle lip modification, making the wedges a permanent part of the nozzle. These methods are usually labor intensive and require skilled technicians, typically making them expensive.